The Swamp Boggles (2 page)

I
don't think I'm ever going to be good enough for Grandpa,” sighed Sophie to her best friend Sam later that afternoon as they sat cross-legged on the floor in her bedroom. An old leather book lay on the carpet between them. Sophie fiddled with its cover with a sigh.

“I know he wishes Anthony was the Guardian instead of me.”

Anthony was Sophie's twin brother. He and Sophie didn't get on at all. Anthony hated the fact that Sophie was as good at sports as he was, and just as strong. “Anthony probably
would
be a better Guardian,” added Sophie glumly.

“No way!” Sam exclaimed.

“Yes way.”

Sam shook his head so hard that his red hair stood up. “Anthony would be a useless Guardian. I bet if he saw one of those Ink Cap Goblins we met the other day, he'd scream and look like this…” He pulled a bug-eyed face. “Or this!” He pulled another face, crossing his eyes and pulling his ears out. “You were really brave, Soph. You fought those goblins and beat
them. If it hadn't been for you, they'd have got away with the green gem.”

Sophie felt much better. “You were braver than me,” she said generously. “I had my Guardian superpowers to help me fight, but you were just you and you still fought them.”

Sam shrugged. “Couldn't leave you to fight them on your own.”

Sophie glowed. When she had first become the Guardian, Grandpa had told her that no one must know, but Sam had found out by accident and since then he'd been helping her. She was very glad. He was incredibly good at figuring things out, and though he might not be the best at throwing and catching things, he was the best friend in the world, and she knew that he'd never let her down.

“I think we need superhero names,” Sam declared now. “Actually, you're OK. You can just be The Guardian. But I need to be called something. I'll be… I'll be…” He thought for a moment. “I know! I'll be Book Boy!”

Sophie looked at him teasingly. “Book Boy? Oh, yes, I can just see those goblins running away, yelling, ‘No, no, not Book Boy! Don't let that Book Boy get me!'”

Sam grinned. “They'll tell their little baby goblins terrifying stories about me and run for their lives when they hear I'm coming! They will live in fear of The Book Boy!”

Sophie chucked a large stuffed dragon at him. “Stop messing!”

He threw it back, but she didn't even have to duck. It sailed past her shoulder and hit the bin.

Sophie giggled. “Good throw, Sam – not! Now come
on.
We have to start looking for clues that tell us where the remaining five gems are hidden.” She opened the book on the floor. It was bound in brown leather with its title on the cover in faded gold letters:
The Shadow Files
. The pages were very thin, and covered with drawings and notes made by all the different Guardians of the Gateway. There was information about the different shadow
creatures they'd each encountered, so that any Guardian coming after would know how best to fight them.

Sophie flicked through the yellowing pages. “Grandpa says the clues will all be in here somewhere, in case the Guardian ever needs to find the gems.”

Sam frowned. “What I don't get is how come your grandpa doesn't know where the clues are. He's had the book for fifty years and seems to know it inside out, so why doesn't he know which pages the clues are on?”

“Oh, I asked him that when we finished training today,” said Sophie, remembering. “I meant to tell you earlier. Every time a new Guardian takes over, the magic moves the gems, so that they're hidden in places where the new Guardian will be able to get to them.
Then new clues appear magically in the book.”

Sam's eyebrows shot up. “So that explains why the green gem was in Mrs Benton's cottage!”

Mrs B was the Smiths' housekeeper. She lived just down the road from Sophie, and the green gem had been hidden in her basement. They had found it on the first day Sophie had become the Guardian.

Sophie nodded. “I know, I wondered about that too. So now we just have to find the rest of the clues and track down the gems.” She looked down at
The Shadow Files
and shook her head. “I just wish it wasn't such a very thick book. There are so many pages to read!”

Sam grinned and beckoned for the files. “Aha, this is where you need Book Boy. Hand it over!”

As Sophie pushed it towards him, there was
the sound of someone coming up the stairs, half singing, half chanting a rhyme:

“
Boys go to Mars to get lots of cars,

Girls go to Mars to get lots of bras…
”

Sophie and Sam grimaced at each other. There was no mistaking Sophie's twin, Anthony.

“
Boys go to Jupiter to get a computer…
” Sophie's door was flung open. Anthony stood there, smirking. “
Girls go to Jupiter to get even
STUPIDER!”

“Get out of my room!” Sophie shouted. She'd only just managed to throw her dressing gown over
The Shadow Files
before her brother saw it.

“Who's going to make me get out? Your
boyfriend
?” Anthony made a kissy-face. He looked like Sophie, with thick blonde hair and
a slim, athletic build, but his eyes were different – while Sophie's were green and friendly, Anthony's were blue and smug. He put on a sing-song voice: “Sam and Sophie in the lavatory, K-I-S-S-I-N—”

“OUT!” Sophie shouted, leaping to her feet, her hands balled into fists.

Anthony jumped out of her reach. Sophie was just as strong as he was, and she practised her tae kwon do a lot more, so she usually beat him in a fight. “My pleasure. I wouldn't want to hang round with you two losers anyway!” he flung over his shoulder as he ran away.

Sophie banged the door shut behind him. Why did she have to have a twin brother like Anthony? He'd been even more annoying than usual the last few days. She knew it was because Grandpa was suddenly doing stuff with her, and Anthony was jealous. Ever since she could remember, Grandpa had spent a lot of time with Anthony. Now she knew that he'd only done so because he'd thought Anthony would be the next Guardian. But the magic hadn't chosen her twin, it had chosen her. The first girl Guardian ever.

Thinking of Grandpa's dour expression as
he'd helped her train that afternoon, Sophie straightened her shoulders.
I'm going to prove to him that I'm just as good a Guardian as Anthony would have been,
she promised herself.
Better, even!

“Look, Soph!” Sam shoved the book across the carpet at her. It was open at a drawing of a round, squat creature with big ears that stuck out sideways, huge flat feet and enormous hands. The title was
Thunder Trolls.
But Sophie wasn't reading the title. She was looking at the four-line verse that Sam was pointing to at the bottom of the page. She read it out:

“The yellow gem!” Sophie gasped, meeting her best friend's excited eyes. “Sam! You've found one of the five clues!”

S
ophie and Sam both re-read the clue. “So the yellow gem is hidden on a shelf somewhere old,” mused Sophie, chewing the end of her long blonde ponytail.

Sam frowned and rubbed his chin. “But loads of buildings around here are old. That doesn't help.”

He pointed to the last line. “‘
Strange wares all around
.' What does
that
mean?”

Sophie made a wild guess. “Maybe wares are things you wear? So the gem might be in a wardrobe, or in a clothes shop…”

Sam shook his head. “I'm sure ‘wares' doesn't mean that. I've heard the word before, I just can't remember what it means.”

They looked at each other, puzzled. “I know – the dictionary!” Sophie raced for her desk, but couldn't find it anywhere. Then she remembered that she had let Mrs B have her dictionary for a jumble sale a few months ago, because she never used it. “Oh, how can we work out what it means?”

“Just keep thinking,” said Sam.

 

Sophie thought all afternoon and all evening,
but she didn't come up with any good ideas. She couldn't even ask Grandpa about it because he was out that night and then went running in the morning.
Never mind
, she thought as she got ready to leave for school.
Sam and I can talk about it today. Maybe he's found a dictionary and has worked the clue out.

“Have you got your school bag, Sophie?” checked Mrs Benton. She had grey hair and rosy cheeks.

“Yes, Mrs B,” Sophie said, nodding at the bag on her shoulder. “It's here.”

Sophie and Anthony's parents were often away from home working abroad for several months at a time because they were archaeologists. When they went away, Grandpa always moved in to look after Sophie and
Anthony and Mrs B did all the shopping, cooking and cleaning.

“Lunch?” Mrs B asked.

“Here.” Sophie held up her lunch box.

“PE kit?”

Sophie nodded. “That too. I'd better go, Sam will be waiting.”

“Have a lovely day,” said Mrs B, kissing her.

“Thanks!” Sophie heard Anthony coming down the stairs and hastily left. She and Anthony never walked to school together if they could help it. Sophie always called for Sam, who lived on the same road, and Anthony usually cycled with his friends.

Grandpa was just coming back from his morning run in his all-black tracksuit. He jogged up to her, glancing around suspiciously. “Keep your eyes open today, Sophie,” he said
in a low voice. “I feel in my bones that something is going on. The woods seem quiet – too quiet. Be prepared!”

Sophie felt a nervous tingle across her scalp. “OK.”

“Now, have you got the green gem with you?” he hissed.

Sophie nodded, touching the belt she was wearing under her school trousers. She could feel the green gem in there, safely hidden.

“Good. You must look after it,” he warned. “And, Sophie,
don't
talk about this on your way to school with Sam if there's anyone around. Stop and think. Wait until the coast is absolutely clear.”

Sophie sighed, feeling tired suddenly of the endless list of instructions. Didn't Grandpa trust her to do
anything
right? “OK. Oh, and
Grandpa…” She was just about to tell him about finding the clue for the yellow gem when an idea came into her head. What if she and Sam could find the gem on their own? It might prove to Grandpa that she was the right person to be the Guardian after all.

“Yes?” he questioned.

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “I'll see you later!” She hurried away.

Sam was waiting for her outside his house, his red hair sticking up in all directions. “Hi there!” They fell into step. “Have you had any more thoughts about the clue?” he whispered.

Sophie shook her head. “I can't figure it out at all. How about you?”

“I looked up ‘wares' in my dad's dictionary at home. It means things that someone sells, so maybe the gem is hidden in a shop.”

Sophie frowned, wondering if that meant they had to search all the shops in town. It would take ages! She opened her mouth to say this, and then she spotted a group of year fives on the pavement ahead.

She blinked as she realised it was Tara, Ria and Daisy talking excitedly to some of the boys from their class. That was strange. Tara, Ria and Daisy were the cool girls at school, and they never talked to the boys if they could help it. But judging from the way Tara was waving her arms and talking really fast, something exciting had happened.

Sophie and Sam hurried over.

“It was totally weird!” Tara was saying. “It looked kind of like a person, a bit taller than me, but it had green skin and it was dripping goo everywhere.”

One of the boys, Jamie, laughed. “Yeah, right. Oink, oink. Flap, flap. There's a pig flying by.”

“I'm not lying. It was real! It was like something out of
Doctor Who
!” Tara insisted.

“I wonder if it was a TV thing – one of those pranks they play.” Ria smoothed her hair
down. “There could be TV cameras watching us right now!”

“Or maybe Tara's just making it up,” snorted Alfie.

“I'm not!” Tara pointed down the nearby cul-de-sac. “It was just down my road over there. Standing by the trees.”

Sophie and Sam exchanged a look. As the group of year fives carried on towards school, still arguing over whether Tara had really seen something or not, the two of them slipped across the road towards the cul-de-sac.

“It has to be a shadow creature,” whispered Sophie.

“I know, but it doesn't sound like an Ink Cap Goblin,” Sam whispered back. “They're not green, and they don't drip goo.”

Sophie peered anxiously down the cul-de-sac. “We'd better go and check it out!”

They walked down the pavement, looking around in all directions. Each bungalow was neat and tidy, bright flowers blooming in window boxes, bins neatly lined up. Everything seemed perfectly normal until Sophie spotted a large trail of slime on the pavement. She
grabbed Sam's arm. “Look!”

Sam gulped. “Either a shadow creature's been here, or there's a supersize snail in town!”

Sophie's toes began to tingle. The feeling surged up through her legs, her body, her arms and into her head. She felt a crazy urge to jump and fight as her Guardian powers kicked in. There
had
to be a shadow creature nearby for her to feel like this!

She set off at a super-fast run. The little cul-de-sac came to a dead end, bordering on to the woods. There was a footpath running alongside the trees, and a small white fluffy dog with a blue bow perched on its head and a sparkly collar was sniffing around the trail of slime. Sophie skidded to a halt beside it. The trail went straight into the trees. She picked up the pampered-looking little dog and moved it well
away from the horrible slime. “I'm going in!” she called over her shoulder to Sam, who was still running down the cul-de-sac.

“Wait for me!” he called, but Sophie didn't. She raced into the trees following the trail.

Branches grabbed at her like crooked fingers, and thorny brambles caught at her ankles, but Sophie was intent on following the slime. The trees pressed close all around her, and the shadows deepened.

Suddenly she saw something just ahead of her, moving through the gloom. She caught her breath. It was a shadow creature! But it certainly wasn't an Ink Cap Goblin. It had greeny-brown skin, enormous bony hands hanging by its sides, straggly wisps of hair that looked like pondweed and slime dripping from its toes.

The Guardian powers were throbbing through her, making her feel strong and powerful. “Hey, you!” she shouted, speeding up. “Mr Bony Hands!”

The creature swung round. It was a head taller than Sophie, and wore scraps of raggedy clothes. A swampy stench like the smell of rotten eggs billowed towards her.

“You!” it said in a burbling, slimy voice. “The girl who's the new Guardian of the Gateway.”

“Yep, that's me,” said Sophie, stopping and folding her arms.

For a moment they both just stared at each other. Suddenly Sophie became aware of strange rustles in the trees around her, coming from the gloomy shadows. A flicker of fear rose up inside her, but she pushed it down.

“What were you doing out on the street?”
she demanded. “Someone saw you!”

“So?” The creature gave a squelchy laugh. Its teeth were very long and sharp, Sophie noticed uneasily.

She tried to sound braver than she felt. “So, stay away from the town and the people in it.”

“Never! I have a job to do.” The creature opened its slimy fingers. In its palm glinted the large iron key to the gateway.

Sam ran up behind Sophie, panting and out of breath. “It's got the key!” he gasped, propping his hands on his knees.

“How did you get that?” burst out Sophie. “Did you take it off the Ink Caps?”

“Take it? No, they
gave
it to me!” The creature gave a low, wet-sounding chuckle that made Sophie's skin crawl. “We've got a deal. I'm going to use it to find the gem, and then
they'll open the gateway.”

Sophie stared at the key. If she could just get it back, then it wouldn't matter where the gems were hidden – the shadow creatures wouldn't be able to open the gateway! She lunged forward, but her opponent was fast. It jerked the key away with a snarl as it swiped at her with long, claw-like fingers.

Sophie jumped back, surprise flashing through her. The Ink Cap Goblins had been cowardly, but this thing didn't seem scared at all! She attacked again, her right foot lashing out in a high kick aimed at its chest.
Ha!
she thought in triumph, waiting for the crunch…

SQUISH!

It was as if her foot had hit a pillow filled with water. The creature's body was so soggy that her kick didn't seem to bother it at all.

Sophie gasped in surprise as her opponent grabbed her foot and yanked upwards, just as Grandpa had done in the training session. “
Oof!
” She thumped back on to the ground.
Before she could spring to her feet, it was looming over her, showing its long, spiny teeth.